Description of the Prior Art
It is now common practice to provide electrical services to buildings by means of wiring systems of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,740,167, incorporated herein by reference. Wiring systems of the type described in that patent specification comprise electrical cables having connectors on their ends, junction boxes, and duplex receptacles which are plugged into the junction boxes. The junction boxes contain a plurality of bus bars which are connected to the conductors in the cable when the connectors on the cable ends are coupled to the junction boxes. The bus bars in turn have integral receptacles for tab terminals so that when the duplex receptacles are plugged into the junction box, the bus bars are connected to the outlet receptacles in the duplex receptacles. It is common practice to locate these junction boxes in walls or panels, in particular, in cutout openings within sheet metal walls.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,634,212, a junction box of the type mentioned above is shown which includes latching features having latching fingers which project one towards the other to form two opposed contacts. The fingers, when in there open state are larger than a cutout in the panel, and when pushed towards the opening, they can contract to place the junction box within the opening. When the junction box is in its centered position within the panel, the fingers open up once again and trap the panel intermediate the fingers.
It has been found that, while this type of system is useful for latching the junction box to a panel, can be difficult to remove. When trying to remove the junction box from the panel, it is difficult to remove the junction box to the same side of the panel. In other words, when one deflects the latch fingers on the same side as one is located, the junction box can be easily pushed through the panel, although, the junction box is now located on the opposite side of the panel. To remove the junction box and keep it on the same side requires that one can deflect the inner latches and pull the box through at the same side, testing one's dexterity and coordination.
The object of the invention then is to design a junction box connection system where the latching structure permits easy installation and removal from one side of the panel.